Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data released last week show a somewhat more efficient mortgage market in 2015 as fewer loan applications were declined and more turned into originated loans. Lenders processed $2.576 trillion in mortgage applications filed in 2015, converting them into $1.651 trillion in purchase and refinance originations, a 32.9 percent increase from the previous year. Some 56.5 percent of loan apps turned into closed loans, up from 53.8 percent in 2014, and the overall denial rate fell 2.9 points to 20.1 percent. Most of last year’s origination surge came...[Includes one data table]

KB Homes CEO Jeff Mezger said Stearns’ lending platform is far more efficient than Nationstar’s…

“In no other industry could you say you are charging a high fee and just promise it to be lower when you arrive for closing,” one commenter said.

In the new SEC filing, PHH notes: “Merrill Lynch originations will contribute approximately $45 million of pre-tax earnings for fiscal year 2016 based on the company’s estimate of Merrill Lynch loan closing volume for 2016.”

Interestingly, new originations increased slightly more than the 31.2 percent increase in new applications filed during the year.

CFPB Director Richard Cordray appeared before credit union representatives recently and touted the performance of their industry’s mortgage operations under the bureau’s mortgage rules. “Our first set of mortgage rules have been in place for over two and a half years, and we are seeing great progress,” Cordray told the National Association of Federal Credit Unions. “In 2014, the first year of our ability-to-repay rule on mortgage origination, owner-occupied home purchase mortgages increased by 4 percent, according to HMDA data, and growth was even stronger last year: home purchase mortgages increased by an estimated 13 percent to 14 percent.” In fact, as it turns out, the mortgage industry overall actually did slightly better than Cordray said. According to analysis of ...

In the mortgage M&A space, there continues to be a disconnect between buyers and sellers…

Retail loans had lower debt-to-income ratios as well…

The Federal Reserve's HMDA tally for 2015 came in at $1.651 trillion…

A strong tide of refinance activity lifted mortgage origination volume in 2015, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data released late this week by federal regulators. Aggregate national data released by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council show a total of $1.651 trillion in first-lien mortgage originations for home purchase and refinance. That was up 32.9 percent from 2014 but failed to ... [Includes one data chart]